COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - Taylor Richards scored a team-high 21 points and freshman Lindsey Freeze came off the bench to contribute 15, but Utah State women's basketball team was overwhelmed by Texas A&M, 81-55, Wednesday night.

The loss was the third straight for USU as it fell to 1-8 overall. A&M picked up its seventh straight victory in improving to 9-2.

"The game was all about an 11 minute stretch," said head coach Raegan Pebley. "I was proud of our kids for 35 minutes, but for five minutes we were pouting - there is no room for that."

A sophomore from West Valley City, Utah, Richards scored her 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and went 6-for-7 seven from the charity stripe. She has now scored double-figures a team-best six times this season and is tied with Ali Marchant for the most 20-plus point games (2) on the year.

Utah State played well the first nine minutes of the game as it fought A&M to a 15-13 lead with 11:22 on the clock. The USU Aggies then went cold from the field and scored just one more field goal in opening half. Meanwhile, the Red Aggies went on a 33-4 run to take a 46-19 halftime lead.

Freeze scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half as she connected on 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc. Her 15 points paced the Aggie bench to scoring 25 of USU's 55 points on the night.

Hurting Utah State on the night were 26 turnovers as A&M scored 32 points off of Blue Aggie miscues. Richards was hampered with 10 turnovers, while Danyelle Snelgro was credited with seven.

A&M was led by Tamea Scales and Takia Starkes, who contributed 21 and 20 respectively. Danielle Gant added 12 points off the bench.

USU was held to 34.1 percent from the floor, marking its first sub-40-percent shooting effort in its last six outings. The Aggies also gave up 48 rebounds - a season-high.

Texas A&M finished shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and attempted 28 more field goals (72-44) than USU. It also dished-out 25 assists to just 12 turnovers.

Utah State continues its Midwest road trip with a New Year's Eve match-up with St. Louis at noon (MST) on Saturday.